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    Never Swim Alone & This Is A Play: 2nd Edition
    Never Swim Alone & This Is A Play: 2nd Edition
    Never Swim Alone & This Is A Play: 2nd Edition
    Ebook119 pages44 minutes

    Never Swim Alone & This Is A Play: 2nd Edition

    By Daniel MacIvor

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    About this ebook

    A funny, satirical story, Never Swim Alone is about Frank and Bill, two egotisitical men locked in a ruthless competition of one-upmanship for seemingly no reason. A hilarious metaplay, This Is A Play follows three actors who, while performing, reveal their own thoughts and motivations as they struggle through crazy stage directions and an unoriginal musical score.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPlaywrights Canada Press
    Release dateFeb 22, 2016
    ISBN9781770914643
    Never Swim Alone & This Is A Play: 2nd Edition
    Author

    Daniel MacIvor

    Born in Sydney, Cape Breton in 1962, Daniel MacIvor studied theatre at Dalhousie University in Halifax and George Brown College in Toronto. A prolific playwright, dynamic performer, producer, and artistic director, MacIvor has been creating original Canadian theatre since 1986 when he founded the highly acclaimed theatre company da da kamera, which has won a Chalmers Award for Innovation in Theatre (1998). MacIvor is also a successful filmmaker. His projects include the award winning short film The Fairy Who Didn’t Want to Be a Fairy Anymore. His first feature film, Past Perfect (produced by Camelia Frieberg), premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in theatres across Canada in March and April of 2003. He also adapted his Governor General’s Award-nominated stage play, Marion Bridge, for the screen (directed by Wiebke von Carolsfeld), for which he won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2002 Atlantic Film Festival. Talonbooks published his play Cul-de-sac in 2005.

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      Book preview

      Never Swim Alone & This Is A Play - Daniel MacIvor

      Cover: Never Swim Alone And This Is A Play by Daniel MacIvor

      Never Swim Alone &

      This Is A Play

      Daniel MacIvor

      Playwrights Canada Press

      Toronto

      Contents

      Never Swim Alone

      Production History

      Characters

      The play

      This Is A Play

      Production History

      Characters

      The Style

      The play

      About the Author

      Copyright Page

      Never Swim Alone

      with love to Ken McDougall,

      a formidable foe and friend indeed

      Never Swim Alone was written in residence at Tarragon Theatre and subsequently workshopped at VideoCabaret with Earl Pastko, Daniel Brooks and G.B. Jones. The play was first produced by Platform 9 Theatre in association with da da kamera at the Theatre Centre, Queen Street West, Toronto. It opened on February 26, 1991, with the following cast and creative team:

      Characters

      Referee: A girl in a blue bathing suit.

      A. Francis Delorenzo: A man in a suit.

      William (Bill) Wade: An almost imperceptibly shorter man in a suit.

      Up stage centre sits a tall chair (maybe a lifeguard chair, maybe a director’s chair); stage left sits a chair for BILL, a briefcase beside it; stage right is a chair for FRANK, a briefcase beside it. As the audience enters the girl lies on stage under a sheet (perhaps she is mostly unnoticed by the audience). Nostalgic summer music plays.

      FRANK and BILL enter through the house, greeting the audience and singling people out: Hey, glad you could come. Nice to see you again. That’s a great shirt. Call me Friday, etc. They step on stage and turn to the audience.

      FRANK & BILL

      (in unison) Hello.

      Good to see you.

      Glad you could come.

      They slowly lift the sheet from the REFEREE. She rises. She wears a blue bathing suit. She looks out and steps down centre.

      REFEREE

      A beach.

      A bay.

      The point.

      Two boys on a beach. Late afternoon. They have been here all day, and they have been here all day every day all summer. It is the last day of summer before school begins. Nearby is a girl. She as well has been here all day, and all day every day all summer. She lies on her green beach towel in her blue bathing suit with her yellow radio. The boys have been watching the girl from a distance all summer, but now that the summer is nearly over, the boys are braver and watch from very close by. She reminds one boy of his sister; she reminds the other of a picture of a woman he once saw in a magazine. She thinks the boys are funny. She thinks the boys are cute. She turns her head a little over her shoulder and speaks to the boys: Race you to the point?

      This is the beach.

      Here is the bay.

      There is the point.

      FRANK and BILL sit. The REFEREE steps to her chair and puts on a whistle. She sits. She blows her whistle.

      Round One: Stature.

      The REFEREE blows her whistle to begin Round One.

      FRANK and BILL rise and step forward.

      FRANK & BILL

      Two men enter a room.

      FRANK

      Good to see you, Bill.

      BILL

      Good to see you, Frank.

      FRANK

      How long’s it been?

      BILL

      Weeks?

      FRANK

      Months?

      BILL

      Too long, Frank.

      FRANK

      Too long indeed, Bill.

      FRANK & BILL

      How’s things? Can’t complain. How’s the family? Just great. How’s business? Well a whole heck of a lot better then it was this time last year let me tell you. Ha ha ha.

      How’s the blood pressure?

      (aside and snide) Ha ha ha.

      FRANK

      Two men.

      BILL

      Two men.

      FRANK & BILL

      Two men enter a room. A taller man and—

      They stop. They laugh. As they speak they each gesture that he is the taller man.

      A taller man and—

      A

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